A tribute to jazz – EU trade in musical instruments

In 2017, the European Union's (EU) Member States exported musical instruments worth over €1.8 billion (including parts and accessories of such articles). Nearly two-thirds of these (almost €1.2 bn) were traded within the EU.

Germany accounts for a third of EU Member States' exports of musical instruments

Among the EU Member States, the three main exporters were Germany (€607 million of musical instruments exported last year, or 34% of the total EU Member States' exports), the Netherlands (€296 million, 16%) and France (€247 million, 14%). They were followed at a distance by Italy (€132 million, 7%), the United Kingdom (€118 million, 7%) and Belgium (€93 million, 5%).

A quarter of EU’s exports of musical instruments go to the United States

When exporting to non-EU countries (€629 million in 2017), EU musical instruments were mainly sent to the United States (€173 million, or 27% of the total extra-EU exports of musical instruments), ahead of Japan (€94 million, 15%), China (€70 million, 11%), Switzerland (€49 million, 8%), Hong Kong (€34 million, 5%), South Korea (€31 million, 5%) and Norway (€26 million, 4%).

EU's imports of musical instruments come primarily from China

In 2017, Member States also imported musical instruments to the value of just over €1 billion from non-EU countries. Almost all of these originated from only four countries: China (€398 million, 38%), the United States (€221 million, 21%), Indonesia (€199, 19%) and Japan (€112 million, 11%).